Answers from a Catholic #1: Salvation

April 28, 2008

Does the Roman Catholic Church teaches that alone in is all that is necessary for ?

Does the Roman Catholic Church not teach that according to Roman , man cannot be saved by faith alone in Christ alone?

Do they not teach that a Christian must rely on faith plus “meritorious works” in order to be saved?

Is it essential to the Roman Catholic doctrine of salvation that one participate in the Seven s, which are: , , the , Penance [also called ], , , and ?

These will be the first four questions answered in what I hope will become an ongoing series. In truth, I’d prefer to answer only the first three at this time, but there’s a problem with that. Catholic is not a series of atomic statements, but rather a unified body of teachings that build off of, play into, and complement and enhance each other. In other words, and more plainly put, it would be impossible to discuss what teaches about salvation without discussing, at least in brief, the various Sacraments of the Church.

But before we begin, let’s look at the short answers to each of the above questions:

  1. If you mean: do Catholics acknowledge sola fides as it is commonly articulated? No.
  2. If you mean: do Catholics reject as it is commonly articulated? Yes.
  3. No. A more appropriate term would simply be “.”
  4. No, not all of those seven.

Now, let’s unpack those answers a little bit, shall we?

According to , the Catholic online encyclopedia, salvation (of the individual) “begins with the grace of God which touches a sinner’s heart, and calls him to repentance. This grace cannot be merited; it proceeds solely from the and of . Man may receive or reject this inspiration of God, he may turn to God or remain in sin. Grace does not constrain man’s .”

So to better answer the first two questions, Catholic teaching holds that salvation stems not from faith alone but — first and foremost — from the grace of God, over which mere humanity has no control or say. That is, we hold that salvation does not exist apart from the inspiration and support of God, who is Love. God offers each of us the gift of His grace, and through that calls us to repent and find salvation; each of us, however, is free to choose whether we accept or reject this grace freely given.

Moreover, the Church holds that one is not saved by faith alone (in the strict sense of sola fide) precisely both because this conviction can sometimes contradict the notion that we are saved by grace alone, and because human faith is imperfect and, if considered atomically, unincarnate. Our faith, as human beings, is not always strong, and often wavers and suffers doubt. How can we be saved by such a fragile thing as this?

That is not to say, however, that we reject a good body of what St. Paul has written.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains grace in this manner: “1996 Our comes from the . Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of .[46]

1997 Grace is a participation in the life of God. It introduces us into the intimacy of Trinitarian life: by Baptism the Christian participates in the grace of Christ, the Head of his Body. As an “adopted son” he can henceforth call God “Father,” in union with the only Son. He receives the life of the Spirit who breathes charity into him and who forms the Church.

…

2002 God’s free initiative demands man’s free response, for God has created man in his image by conferring on him, along with freedom, the power to know him and love him. the soul only enters freely into the communion of love. God immediately touches and directly moves the heart of man. He has placed in man a longing for truth and goodness that only he can satisfy. the promises of “eternal life” respond, beyond all hope, to this desire:

If at the end of your very good works . . ., you rested on the seventh day, it was to foretell by the voice of your book that at the end of our works, which are indeed “very good” since you have given them to us, we shall also rest in you on the sabbath of eternal life.[52]

2003 Grace is first and foremost the gift of the Spirit who justifies and sanctifies us. But grace also includes the gifts that the Spirit grants us to associate us with his work, to enable us to collaborate in the salvation of others and in the growth of the Body of Christ, the Church. There are sacramental graces, gifts proper to the different sacraments. There are furthermore special graces, also called s after the Greek term used by St. Paul and meaning “favor,” “gratuitous gift,” “benefit.”[53] Whatever their character - sometimes it is extraordinary, such as the gift of s or of tongues - charisms are oriented toward sanctifying grace and are intended for the common good of the Church. They are at the service of which builds up the Church.[54]“

What the Church is here getting at (or beginning to get at; the Catechism goes on for several paragraphs more) here is to affirm that God’s grace is freely given and that to find salvation, we need to consciously choose to participate in it and co-operate with the grace bestowed, in the understanding that grace flows from God.

And when I say “participate,” I am not implying that the Catholic view of salvation involves “grace + works” — to do so would be to set myself against the , which ruled that “If any one saith, that man may be justified before God by his own works, whether done through the teaching of human nature, or that of the law, without the grace of God through Christ; let him be anathema.”

No, instead and far more radically, when I speak of participation in God’s grace I am referring to the idea articulated by in his letter to the Philippians:

[12]Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; [13] for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

This is not a call to some lazy confidence in one’s faith, considered atomically, to secure one’s svlation, for, as St. Paul notes in his first letter to the Corinthians:

[1]If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. [2] And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

That we must have faith in Christ is imperative. But ours is a human faith, subject to weakness and doubts as surely as any other aspect of human nature. And faith alone, considered atomically and apart from the rest of human nature, is not a faith which saves, because it denies the reality of incarnation. Our faith must be incarnate; that is, it must become robed in flesh just as Christ was God robed in flesh. It must bear fruit, or it is meaningless.

It cannot be atomic, then, in the sense that sola fide holds faith to be.

And when St. Paul speaks of having faith to move mountains but having not love, and when speaks of having faith enough to understand that Christ will bless, clothe and feed the needy but does not allow that faith to pour itself out in a fruitful manner that results in the needy being fed and clothed, they are addressing exactly that atomic view of faith. Faith that is not fruitful is indeed dead, and has no power to save. Faith that is fruitful in the understanding of, and participation in, God’s grace, is alive, and has power to save because it participates in God’s grace, which is what saves.

To believe in “grace + works” would be to state, essentially, that Jesus was less than He was; it would be to state that we need to augment what good He brings us with our own good in order to achieve salvation. Obviously, this is in error. But equally, simply having faith in Christ — but then a faith which is not fruitful — is meaningless, and suggests laziness on our part, for it is equivalent to stating that we are powerless in our own salvation. And while it is true that we are powerless to dictate to God who is saved and by what means (for that is God’s to decide, and not ours), we are nevertheless empowered in our own salvation because we can only accept God’s grace (which is what saves) by participating in it.

On this issue, Catholics and Protestants are very close; in fact, we both believe the same thing (essentially). If any difference exists, it is that many Protestants seem to assert that faith will necessarily inspire good works, if it is “true” faith. And yet, as attested to by both St. Paul and St. James, genuine faith can exist atomically from good works. And indeed, Protestant theology and Catholic theology both uphold this truth as well. upholds it by insisting that faith alone, wholly apart from works, saves. Catholicism upholds it by remarking that faith alone — i.e. faith which is not fruitful — is not full participation in God’s grace, which is what is actually salvific.

The explanation of salvation continues thusly: “Thus assisted the sinner is disposed for salvation from sin; he believes in the revelation and promises of God, he fears God’s justice, hopes in his mercy, trusts that God will be merciful to him for Christ’s sake, begins to love God as the source of all justice, hates and detests his sins.

This disposition is followed by justification itself, which consists not in the mere remission of sins, but in the sanctification and renewal of the inner man by the voluntary reception of God’s grace and gifts, whence a man becomes just instead of unjust, a friend instead of a foe and so an heir according to hope of eternal life. This change happens either by reason of a perfect act of charity elicited by a well disposed sinner or by virtue of the Sacrament either of Baptism or of Penance according to the condition of the respective subject laden with sin. The Council further indicates the causes of this change. By the merit of the Most Holy Passion through the , the charity of God is shed abroad in the hearts of those who are justified.

The explains justification in this way: “1987 The grace of the Holy Spirit has the power to justify us, that is, to cleanse us from our sins and to communicate to us “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ” and through Baptism:[34]

But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves as dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.[35]

1988 Through the power of the Holy Spirit we take part in Christ’s Passion by dying to sin, and in his Resurrection by being born to a new life; we are members of his Body which is the Church, branches grafted onto the vine which is himself:[36]

(God) gave himself to us through his Spirit. By the participation of the Spirit, we become communicants in the divine nature…. For this reason, those in whom the Spirit dwells are divinized.[37]

…

1990 Justification detaches man from sin which contradicts the love of God, and purifies his heart of sin. Justification follows upon God’s merciful initiative of offering forgiveness. It reconciles man with God. It frees from the enslavement to , and it heals.

1991 Justification is at the same time the acceptance of God’s righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. Righteousness (or “justice”) here means the rectitude of divine love. With justification, faith, hope, and charity are poured into our hearts, and obedience to the divine will is granted us.”

This actually moves us both to the answers to the third and fourth questions, and ties us back to what was said, above, concerning grace. Justification, as a result of “the voluntary reception of God’s grace and gifts” entails the aforementioned ideal of fruitful participation. And as with everything else, the behind this view relates back to Christ’s .

As has already been stated, viewing faith as atomically salvific denies that our faith, as individuals, must be an incarnate faith if it is to have any role in our salvation; as Christ became man, so must our faith become fruitful. And in the direct example of Christ incarnate, but also in other stories within the Bible, we see time and again the example of God making His grace manifest through creation. Jesus is, obviously, the pinnacle of this, and has been the Church’s example throughout history.

So when the Church speaks of merit, it is not advocating for us to do good works to boost or augment, in any way, the salvific power of God’s grace; it is re-iterating that we must choose the salvation which God freely offers us by way of participating in that grace. We must embody that grace within us. As Christ was God incarnate in human form, so God’s grace must be incarnate in each person through what are classically called “the fruits of the Spirit” (c.f. Galatians 5:22-23) — if a person has all faith, but does not demonstrate the fruits of faith, their experience if God’s grace is not participative, and therefore not salvific.

And in fact, the Church’s explicit position on works is that man alone does no good works save those that God inspires; “As often as we do good God operates in us and with us, so that we may operate.” (Canon 9, Second Council of Orange). God always acts before we act; His works are always before our good works.

Now this is as true for Christians as it is for non-Christians, whom (we can observe with our own eyes) are also more than able to do good works. And indeed, some are even correct to point out that there is a naturalistic component to the good works we do unto each other in many cases, for God — ever incarnational — has designed us in such a manner that we benefit from doing that which is likewise moral, and suffer from doing that which is likewise immoral. And both Christian and non-Christian alike can and do many good works, though always through the prior participation of God (whether the person enacting the good work has any belief in God, or indeed any idea that God is acting through him or her).

But the Church is consistent. For just as faith, atomic from fruitfulness, is not salvific, so too are works, atomic from understanding and participating in God’s grace, not salvific. One is not saved by works alone.

And of course, one of the key ways we participate in God’s grace is through what is called the Sacramental Life of the Church, which is participation in the seven Sacraments.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church prefaces its discussion of the Sacraments with the observation that “1210 Christ instituted the sacraments of the new law. There are seven: Baptism, Confirmation (or ), the Eucharist, Penance, the Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders and Matrimony. The seven sacraments touch all the stages and all the important moments of Christian life:[1] they give birth and increase, healing and mission to the Christian’s life of faith. There is thus a certain resemblance between the stages of natural life and the stages of the spiritual life.” This refers, then, to the symbolic aspect of the Sacraments themselves since they too uphold the incarnational view of God’s relationship to humanity that the Church holds.

Sacraments are, as the Catholic encyclopedia puts it so well, “outward signs of inward grace, instituted by Christ for our sanctification…It is the teaching of the Catholic Church and of Christians in general that, whilst God was nowise bound to make use of external ceremonies as symbols of things spiritual and sacred, it has pleased Him to do so, and this is the ordinary and most suitable manner of dealing with men.” That is to say, then, that God chooses to bestow grace upon humanity by means of utilizing other aspects of His creation, as surely as he has done so in the past.

“Almighty God can and does give grace to men in answer to their internal aspirations and prayers without the use of any external sign or ceremony. This will always be possible, because God, grace, and the soul are spiritual beings. God is not restricted to the use of material, visible symbols in dealing with men; the sacraments are not necessary in the sense that they could not have been dispensed with. But, if it is known that God has appointed external, visible ceremonies as the means by which certain graces are to be conferred on men, then in order to obtain those graces it will be necessary for men to make use of those Divinely appointed means. This truth theologians express by saying that the sacraments are necessary, not absolutely but only hypothetically, i.e., in the supposition that if we wish to obtain a certain supernatural end we must use the supernatural means appointed for obtaining that end. In this sense the Council of Trent (Sess. VII, can. 4) declared heretical those who assert that the sacraments of the New Law are superfluous and not necessary, although all are not necessary for each individual.”

It is always a bit tricky to clearly communicate — in an manner that most would understand — the exact Catholic stance on the necessity of the Sacraments in the economy of salvation. Let me begin by observing that if one wants to uphold the strictest view, in general one must hold that the Sacrament of Baptism is necessary — participation in any of the other Sacraments is not strictly required, although obviously this is typically a view that only sees real application in extreme cases. Moreover, the addage that “salvation can be found between the stirrup and the ground” rings true, and it is consistent with Catholic theology to state that because God’s grace is His to bestow and not man’s to dictate, salvation may come to those who have been unable to participate in any aspect of the .

The effects of the Sacraments are twofold:

    “(a) The principal effect of the sacrament is a two-fold grace: (1) the grace of the sacrament which is “first grace”, produced by the sacraments of the dead, or “second grace”, produced by the sacraments of the living (supra, IV, 3, b); (2) The sacramental grace, i.e., the special grace needed to attain the end of each sacrament. Most probably it is not a new habitual gift, but a special vigour or efficacy in the sanctifying grace conferred, including on the part of God, a promise, and on the part of man a permanent right to the assistance needed in order to act in accordance with the obligations incurred, e.g., to live as a good Christian, a good priest, a good husband or wife (cf. ST III:62:2).

    (b) Three sacraments, Baptism, Confirmation and Orders, besides grace, produce in the soul a character, i.e., an indelible spiritual mark by which some are consecrated as servants of God, some as soldiers, some as ministers. Since it is an indelible mark, the sacraments which impress a character cannot be received more than once (Conc. Trid., sess. VII, can.9; see CHARACTER).”

For those who have received Baptism in non-extreme circumstances, participation in the other Sacraments is encouraged to the point of being held as a necessary part of participation in God’s salvific grace, for it is by the Sacraments that we participate in specific aspects of that grace. Reconciliation, for example, is the means by which it is most appropriate to participate in the component of God’s grace that washes us clean of sin. This is not the only means by which we might participate in that aspect of God’s grace, of course — merely, as has been stated, the most appropriate, for it is in full keeping not only with the commission placed upon each believer to confess his or her sins (various passages in Scripture declare and affirm this), but also the commission and mandate given to the apostles (and, by extension, those who follow in succession from them), as chronicled in the Gospel of John:

[21] Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” [22] And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. [23] If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

Nobody would claim that any man or woman forgiven by in the days, weeks, months, or years that followed this commission was forgiven by a man usurping the authority of God, nor would anyone claim that any man or woman whose sins were retained by the apostles was cut off from God by a man, for Scripture teaches us that such things are impossible. Therefore, the only way that Christ could have given this commission is if the apostles were empowered to forgive sins in the name of — and, by extension, by the power of — God.

And as the Father sent Christ, and as He sent them, they in turn sent others onward in succession down to the present day. Therefore, in a Sacrament like Reconciliation, the Church is really only applying the teachings of Christ in, again, an incarnational manner.

Let me end up where I began. There were, I believe, four questions, to which I gave short answers. Let me give slightly more detailed versions of those short answers now.

  1. No, we teach that salvation is by God’s grace alone. Faith alone, considered atomically from fruitful participation in God’s grace, is not incarnational and therefore not salvific.
  2. Yes. As stated, salvation is by God’s grace alone, and each man and woman must freely choose to become a participant in God’s salfivic grace. Faith, considered atomically and detached from fruitfulness (as is the case in sola fide) is not an incarnate faith, and is thus not salvific.
  3. Yes and no. The specific teaching, again, is that one must be a willing participant in God’s grace, and that this confession of faith is necessarily also fruitful. “Merit,” as it is understood by the Church, is that synthesis, that fruitfulness in faith by which we fully participate in God’s salvific grace.
  4. Yes and no. It might be best (though not entirely accurate) to say that the Sacraments are the most appropriate means by which we participate directly in specific aspects of God’s grace (by which we are saved). They are not the only means by which we might participate in that grace and still come to salvation, but this is outside the scope of the discussion; at such point, one can only hope in, and count on, the fact that God is merciful.

Catechetical footnotes:

    1 — Cf. , STh III, 65, 1.

    34 — Rom 3:22; cf. 6:3-4.

    35 — Rom 6:8-11.

    36 — Cf. 1 Cor 12; Jn 15:1 4.

    37 — , Ep. Serap. 1, 24: PG 26, 585 and 588.

    46 — Cf. Jn 1:12-18; 17:3; Rom 8:14-17; 2 Pet 1:3-4.

    52 — , Conf. 13, 36, 51: PL 32, 868; cf. Gen 1:31.

    53 — Cf. LG 12.

    54 — Cf. 1 Cor 12.

Posted by Kenneth Filed in Catholicism, Philosophy, Theology
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